BRITISH HANGMAN KILLED HIMSELF AFTER HANGING MORE THAN 200 MURDERERS

Edwardian executioner who hanged more than 200 criminals was afraid of killing chickens

 

By Cameron Roy

 

Daily Mail

Sep 1, 2024

 

John Ellis was an Edwardian executioner who was known for his calm and professional approach as he went about his job as Britain's top hangman for 12 years

 

John Ellis was an Edwardian executioner who was known for his calm and professional approach as he went about his job as Britain's top hangman for 12 years.

The Rochdale-born man executed more than 200 criminals during that time, including one of the most notorious murderers in British history - Dr Crippen.

He had no qualms about travelling across the country to hang people, but it appears the animal lover would struggle to kill his chickens, a new book has claimed.

Neil R Story, the historian and author, has obtained a secret scrapbook Ellis kept during his entire career as the Home Office's hangman from 1901 and 1924.

The newly discovered booklet recounts numerous executions and newspaper cuttings, as well as Ellis's notes about the last moments of criminals. 

Mr Story believed Ellis had 'extreme faith' in the criminal justice system and saw the gruesome job as his chance to 'do his bit'.

 

The Rochdale-born man executed more than 200 criminals during that time, including one of the most notorious murderers in British history - Dr Crippen (pictured) 

Ellis had no qualms about travelling across the country to hang people, but it appears the animal lover would struggle to kill his chickens, a new book has claimed

 

He claims Ellis was always dressed smartly and was a keen breeder of chickens and dogs, but the animal lover and found it quite hard to kill his chicken. 

The document also recounts final words as well as some grisly details such as how long a rope needed to be for the perfect 'drop'. 

Mr Storey told The Telegraph: 'When I saw the scrapbook at auction I knew what it was. The family didn't talk about him after his death and I think the scrapbook was put away in a drawer and was moved in a house clearance. 

'It was known to exist and there was rumour and myth, so to find it was enormous. It is unique in the annals of British crime.'

John Gwilliam, a grandson on Ellis, said in the Discovery channel TV documentary The Executioners, that it was a surprise to the whole family when he decided to become an executioner. 

Before becoming an executioner Ellis was a butcher and he couldn't even bear to wring the chickens' necks in the family smallholding. 

Mr Gwilliam said: 'The family was horrified.

Mr Ellis's father, a wealthy man owning a number of shops, even threatened to deny his son his inheritance if he went through with it - a threat he later carried out.

Mr Ellis qualified in 1901 and soon rose to become assistant hangman, the second most senior hangman in the country.

He took the top spot in 1912 and seemed to cope with the pressure of the job by convincing himself of the condemned's guilt, and he would even sit in on trials.

Mr Gwilliam said: 'He wanted to know he was right', according to The Manchester Evening News.

His career highlights included most famously Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen who murdered his opera singer wife Cora in their home in London in July 1910.

Mild-mannered Dr Crippen was found guilty of poisoning and dismembering his wife - before burying her mutilated body under his basement floor.

 

Crippen was convicted and hanged for the murder of his wife, stage actress Cora aka Belle Elmore (pictured), at Pentonville Prison in London in November 1910

A disguised Dr Crippen (second from right) is escorted off a ship after his arrest for the murder of his wife

A wanted poster for information leading to the apprehension of Dr. Crippen. He was wanted for the murder of his wife Cora. Crippen was eventually caught and hanged

Mild-mannered Dr Crippen was found guilty of poisoning and dismembering his wife - before burying her mutilated body under his basement floor (pictured, Dr Crippen and his mistress Ethel Le Neve on trial in London in 1910)

 

Dr Crippen immediately moved his lover Ethel into the couple's home in Holloway, North London. 

When Cora's friends alerted the police about his wife's disappearance, Dr Crippen and Ethel fled to Canada disguised as father and son on the SS Montrose. The gruesome crime gripped Britain and a huge manhunt ensued.

Wanted posters famously helped catch the illicit couple when the ship's captain noticed Dr Crippen and Ethel and alerted the police using the newly invented wireless telegraph.

Crippen was convicted and hanged for his wife's murder at Pentonville Prison in London in November of that year.

The American was put to death after a trial at the Old Bailey which captivated the Edwardian public at the time.

However it was not the hanging of Dr Crippen that had the greatest impact of Ellis, it was two hangings far later on in his career.

He hanged pretty 29-year-old Edith Thompson on the cold, grey morning of January 9, 1923.

Together with her younger lover Freddie Bywaters, who would be dispatched simultaneously at Pentonville Prison, less than half a mile away, she had been found guilty of murdering her husband, Percy Thompson. 

The salacious details of this sensational crime of passion had gripped the nation that festive season, but it was the manner of Edith's own death that was to haunt Ellis. 

Yet even he admitted to being rattled by Edith's 'total emotional collapse' and her 'cries and semi-demented body movements' as he entered the condemned cell at precisely 9am and pinioned her hands behind her back.

 

Crowds outside Holloway Prison on the cold, grey morning of January 9, 1923, where Edith Thompson was to be hanged for the murder of her husband, Percy, by chief executioner John Ellis

That Edith strayed from the marital path was all the more shocking for a woman from her deeply traditional, working-class background. Pictured around 1920

Together with her younger lover Freddie Bywaters (left), Edith Thompson (centre) had been found guilty of murdering her husband, Percy (right)

Percy Thompson and wife Edith Thompson

Three stab wounds were found to Percy's neck, one passing up through the floor of his mouth and another, which was fatal, severing his carotid artery. Pictured: Detective Sergeant Hancock with the knife used to murder Percy Thompson in 1922

 

Whether because of the sedatives she had been given, or through sheer terror, she fell unconscious and had to be carried the few yards to the scaffold by Ellis's two assistants and two male warders who had been brought in from Pentonville, their female counterparts being regarded as too delicate to have to deal with such grim occasions.

'As soon as they reached the trap-doors I put the white cap on her head and face, and slipped the noose over all. It was a pitiable thing to see the woman being held up on her feet,' Ellis later recalled.

'Her head had fallen forward on her breast, and she was utterly oblivious of all that was going on . . .

'I sprang to the lever. One flick of the wrist, and Mrs Thompson disappeared from view.'

Less than 12 months later, Ellis gave up his job with no explanation and later killed himself, cutting his throat with a razor. 

Some said he had never got over the trauma of sending Edith Thompson to an end that was all the more shocking because it now seems likely she was innocent.

Her case was often cited in the debates about capital punishment, which led to its abolition in 1965.

Neil R Story's The Hangman's Scrapbook will be released at the end of September. 

__________________

DR CRIPPEN, EVIL MURDERER OR VICTIM OF A MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE? 

American born Dr Harvey Crippen moved to Holloway in north London with his second wife Cora. She disappeared following a party at the couple's house in January 1910.

Friends of Mrs Crippen became suspicious after seeing Crippen's mistress, who moved into the house, wearing her clothes and jewellery.  

An initial search by Scotland Yard found no evidence of any foul play, however, Dr Crippen fled with his mistress to Canada. 

After he disappeared, Scotland Yard conducted three further searches of the property where they recovered human remains.  

Crippen and his mistress were travelling on the SS Montrose when the captain of the vessel, who was keeping up-to-date with the news on the newly installed wireless, telegraphed Scotland Yard. 

Crippen's mistress, Ethel Le Neve, was travelling disguised as a young boy. 

An inspected boarded a faster vessel and raced Crippen across the Atlantic, arresting him upon his arrival in Canada. 

Had he boarded a vessel to New York, he would have probably escaped punishment. 

Crippen was returned to the Old Bailey where he was found guilty of murder after less than 30 minutes and hanged in Pentonville Prison in November 1910. 

The human remains recovered by Scotland Yard were badly decomposed and more than 100 years after their recovery, it is believed that the bones belonged to a man.

Attempts have been made by distant relatives of Dr Crippen to exonerate him, however his body remains inside the walls of Pentonville Prison. 

A study reported in the Journal of Forensic Science in America by scientist David Foran said: 'Based on genealogical and DNA research, the tissue used to convict Dr Crippen was not that of Cora.

‘Further DNA testing showed the tissue was male. All we can say scientifically is, the tissue did not come from Cora.

‘One possibility is that Crippen murdered someone else and those were the remains discovered. Another possibility is that the celebrated investigators planted the evidence.’ 

MURDERS AT A NUDIST RESORT

More human remains found at home of alleged killer of couple at nudist resort 

 

by: Josh DuBose

 

KTLA 5

Sep 1, 2024

 

 

Stephanie and Daniel Menard were reported missing on August 25

  

Michael Royce Sparks was arrested in connection to the Menards' death

 

More human remains have been found at the home of 62-year-old Redlands resident Michael Sparks, who was arrested on suspicion of murder last week in connection with an elderly couple reported missing out of Colton.  

Investigators with the Redlands Police Department on Sunday were in their fourth day of an extensive search of Sparks’ property at the Olive Dell Ranch Nudist Resort when they recovered the additional remains.  

 

 

Police bulldozed Sparks' home in search for the couple

  

The front of the home was completely demolished

 

On Aug. 29, after police were tipped off about where the now presumed dead 73-year-old Stephanie Menard and 79-year-old Daniel Menard might be located, authorities attempted to locate Sparks at his home.  

The 62-year-old had barricaded himself with a rifle inside, prompting police to use a drone and then a battering ram to tear through the house.  

He was located in a cement bunker beneath the residence, the same location where a cadaver dog alerted police to bags stuffed with human remains.  

Authorities said Sparks attempted to take his own life moments before he was captured, but the rifle misfired.  

The Menards were last seen on Aug. 24 and reported missing the next day by a friend when they didn’t show up for church. Their abandoned vehicle was found about a half mile down from the RV Park.  

The Menards and Sparks had been neighbors for years. Other nearby residents told KTLA that the trio had an ongoing feud, and that Sparks never liked the couple.  

While authorities have yet to comment on how the alleged killings happened, others, like longtime friend and neighbor Irene Engkraf, have been asking their own questions. 

“If [Sparks] drove that car down there, how did he come from there all the way around and up that hill without anybody seeing or knowing who drove that car,” she told KTLA’s Shelby Nelson. 

Authorities say they are continuing the work of positively identifying the remains found on Spark’s property as that of the Menards.  

It remains unclear if the additional human remains found on the property Sunday may be another victim or victims. 

QUALIFIED IMMUNITY AT WORK ..... HAVING SPENT TWO WEEKS BEHIND BARS AFTER MISTAKEN IDENTITY ARREST, THIS WOMAN SHOULD BE SUBSTANTIALLY COMPENSATED FOR HER ORDEAL

New Jersey woman arrested, jailed over mistaken identity cannot sue due to qualified immunity, court rules

Judith Maureen Henry was mistaken for another woman with the same name

 

By Landon Mion  

 

Fox News

Sep 2, 2024

 

 

A court ruled that Judith Maureen Henry, who was arrested and jailed over a mistaken identity, cannot sue the U.S. marshals who arrested her because they are protected by qualified immunity.

 

A New Jersey woman who was arrested and spent two weeks behind bars over a mistaken identity cannot sue the U.S. marshals who arrested her because they are protected by qualified immunity, a court ruled.

Judith Maureen Henry was booked into the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark in 2019 after the marshals detained her, mistakenly believing she was another woman with the same name who pleaded guilty to drug possession and skipped her parole in Pennsylvania in 1993.

Henry sought to sue the marshals over the mistake, but a three-judge appellate panel ruled Thursday that the marshals acted on a "constitutionally valid" warrant and were protected by qualified immunity, which shields law enforcement from liability for wrongdoing.

"Their arrest of Henry relying on information attached to the warrant was a reasonable mistake, and therefore her arrest did not violate the Fourth Amendment," Judge Thomas Ambro of the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in the ruling, according to the New Jersey Monitor.

Henry repeatedly told marshals during her 2019 arrest that she was not the person they were after and asked them to compare her fingerprints to those of the actual offender. But nobody compared the fingerprints until 10 days after her arrest, when she was transferred to Pennsylvania, and she remained locked up for another few days before she was finally released.

"Henry's complaint — that the Marshals failed to take her claims of innocence seriously — raises a host of policy questions about the role of the Marshals Service after they apprehend a suspect on a warrant for a crime they did not investigate," Ambro wrote.

The judge said those questions include how strong a claim of innocence must be before a marshal investigates, who should investigate and how thorough an investigation should be conducted. He said a reasonable observer could conclude the answers to these questions would be easy to find and would impose "minimal burdens" on the marshals.

But, Ambro wrote, those policy questions should be up to lawmakers to address.

He also noted that the marshals were not involved in Henry's continued detention.

The court also rejected allegations from Henry, who is black and from Jamaica, that she faced this treatment due to her race, sex, national origin and lower economic status.

"We need not accept this bare conclusion, and she offers no other allegations to support it," Ambro wrote.

A district judge had refused the marshals' request to dismiss Henry’s lawsuit against them, but Ambro reversed that ruling and ordered the judge to drop the marshals from the lawsuit.

Outside the marshals, Henry's lawsuit named Essex County and about 30 law enforcement officers and government officials in New Jersey and Pennsylvania as defendants, accusing them of abuse of process, false arrest and imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, failure to train and supervise and conspiracy.

A REALLY STUPID EXPERIMENT ENDS

Hard drugs illegal again in Oregon as first-in-nation experiment ends

 

By Ben Brasch 

 

The Washington Post

September 1, 2024 

 

 

A homeless woman smokes fentanyl, June 28, 2024, in Portland, Ore. 

 

As of Sunday, it is, once again, illegal to possess small amounts of hard drugs in Oregon. A first-in-the-nation law decriminalizing drugs expired, as communities across America struggle to curb fentanyl use and overdose deaths.

Sunday marks the end of an experiment that drug-reform advocates called a pioneering and progressive measure to better help people. Oregon legislators reassessed Measure 110 this year and decided to again make it a misdemeanor to possess a minor amount of drugs — essentially anything besides marijuana. Selling and manufacturing illicit drugs was and is still illegal in Oregon.

Those who supported the measure said it sought to help instead of simply handcuff, by offering services as opposed to the stigma of an arrest, which can make it harder to find a job or a place to live. The most vocal advocate was the Drug Policy Alliance, which spent more than $4 million on the campaign.

The measure required officers to hand out $100 citations instead of jail time, and that citation could be waived if the person called a state-funded hotline and enrolled in an assessment for treatment. Those services were funded by hundreds of millions of dollars in marijuana tax revenue. (Marijuana has been legal in Oregon since 2015.)

The alliance and others used Portugal, which decriminalized certain hard drugs in 2001, as a model — despite Portugal mulling changes of its own to the law.

The Oregon campaign emphasized a study showing that Black and Native American people were more likely to be convicted of drug crimes than White people and must deal with the consequences for decades.

The vote came in November 2020 during a wave of calls for criminal justice restructuring that crested after the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by a Minneapolis police officer.

The measure passed with support from about 60 percent of voters.

“We have been criminalizing people for at least 50 years, and what we know is that it hasn’t gotten us any closer to having our loved ones get the care that they need at the scale that it requires,” Kassandra Frederique, the alliance’s executive director, told The Washington Post at the time.

But the program’s problems were clear right away.

Because of decades of underinvestment in behavioral health services, there weren’t enough providers to care for drug users, experts said. The health-care system was stretched thin by the coronavirus pandemic. When the measure passed, state officials said Oregon ranked last in the nation for providing access to substance-use disorder treatment. Then state auditors raised concerns about the way the Oregon Health Authority managed grants meant for substance-abuse programs.

Then there was fentanyl. Up to 50 times stronger than heroin, fentanyl in 2021 was just hitting its peak on the West Coast after wreaking havoc elsewhere in the nation. This January, the soaring number of fentanyl overdoses prompted state and local leaders to declare a 90-day state of emergency in downtown Portland.

Supported by polling that showed that citizens no longer backed decriminalization, The Post reported, politicians and business leaders filed initiatives to let voters to “fix and improve” the law.

Soon after, Oregon legislators convened.

On Feb. 29, the Oregon House of Representatives voted 51-7 to recriminalize drugs, with bipartisan support. The Oregon Senate did the same by a vote of 21-8 the next day. Gov. Tina Kotek (D) signed recriminalization into law April 1.

Data shows how the law was used in practice. The Oregonian reported that circuit court data collected by the Oregon Judicial Department from when the law went into effect Feb. 1, 2021, to Aug. 26, 2024, showed that the state’s circuit courts imposed just under $900,000 in fines under the measure but collected only $78,000 of those fines.

The conviction rate for the 7,227 people cited was 89 percent, with most of those because people didn’t show up to court, the Oregonian reported. Data showed that 85 people completed the substance-abuse screening in lieu of a conviction.

The most commonly cited drug was methamphetamine, accounting for 54 percent of citations. Fentanyl and other Schedule II drugs, the Oregonian reported, ranked second, at 31 percent.

Advocates of the measure were saddened by what they viewed as a backward move from lawmakers.

“It’s easier for the legislature to blame and stigmatize and disappear people into jails than to fix the problem they had a hand in creating,” Emily Kaltenbach of the Drug Policy Alliance previously told The Post.

The last day the measure was in effect was Saturday, which was Overdose Awareness Day.

SEEMS LIKE A REASONABLE LAW

NY cops arrest knife-wielding teen migrant after first-in-the-nation public mask ban

By Carl Campanile

 

New York Post 

Aug 27, 2024 

Police responded to reports of Ramirez Castillo “walking eastbound on Spindle Road, dressed in black, and wearing a mask to conceal his identity,” 

 

Nassau County cops busted an illegal migrant teen carrying a massive knife in the first arrest under a first-in-the-nation law that bans wearing masks in public, authorities said Tuesday.

Wesslin Omar Ramirez Castillo, 18, was spotted in a ski mask lurking around a Levittown neighborhood Sunday night — and cops found he was armed with a 14-inch blade when they stopped him under the “Mask Transparency Act.”

“Our police officers were able to use the mask ban legislation as well as other factors to stop and interrogate an individual who was carrying a weapon with the intent to engage in a robbery,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman told The Post. 

 

Wesslin Omar Ramirez Castillo, 18, was busted in Nassau County carrying this knife — marking its first arrest using its law banning mask wearing in public. 

 

“Passing this law gave police another tool to stop this dangerous criminal,” he added.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials confirmed to Nassau law enforcement that Ramirez Castillo — who is originally from Gautemala — illegally crossed the southern border in 2019.

“This is just another example of how important it is to vet every migrant before admitting them into our country. Nassau is not a sanctuary county,” Blakeman said.

Police responded to reports of a “suspicious male who was walking eastbound on Spindle Road, dressed in black, and wearing a mask to conceal his identity,” a police report obtained by The Post said.

“Upon further investigation, the defendant Wesslin Omar Ramirez Castillo, 18,… continued to display suspicious behavior while attempting to conceal a large bulge in his waistband which turned out to be a 14 inch knife,” the report said.

“Defendant Ramirez Castillo refused to comply with Officers’ commands as he was placed under arrest without further incident.” 

Ramirez Castillo is charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, obstructing governmental administration in the second degree, and violating the 90-Mask Transparency Act, misdemeanor counts. 

He was arraigned in criminal court Monday.

Nassau Executive Blakeman approved the face-covering law that passed the Republican-led legislature on Aug.14.

The bill was championed by Nassau Legislator Mazi Pilip, an Ethiopian-born Jew from Great Neck, who said she wanted to expose antisemitic thugs who have hidden their identies at raging anti-Israel demonstrations.

During the bill signing ceremony, Blakeman emphasized the ban wouldn’t just focus on cracking down on lawbreakers shielding their identities at protests.

 

Ramirez Castillo was spotted in a ski mask lurking around a Levittown neighborhood Sunday night. 

 

He argued that the law would also be used to clamp down on masked criminals who carjack, shoplift and rob banks.

Nassau County Police Chief Patrick Ryder is expected to reveal more details on mask-wearing defendant Ramirez Castillo’s case on Wednesday, included whether he will be deported.

National black and Jewish civil rights leaders — including the NAACP, Urban League and Anti-Defamation League — have launched an “UnMaskHateNY” campaign to urge Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state legislature to adopt a statewide ban on wearing face coverings to shield one’s identity during protests.

The grassroots #EndJewHatred civil rights movement was set to rally outside of Columbia University Tuesday to call on Columbia and and all American universities to ban wearin masks or facial coverings in public places.

UTERUS CONTRACTIONS ARE WHAT LABOR DAY IS ABOUT

by Howie Katz

 

 

Texas Woman's University is the nation's largest university system for women. TWU's main campus is located in Denton, Texas.

When asked what Labor Day was about, 83 percent of the 14,000 students at TWU in Denton thought it was a celebration of the uterus contractions (labor) women experience as part of the childbirth process.

 

 

12 percent had no idea what Labor Day was about and five percent said they did not give a rat's ass.

83 percent of the 14,000 TWU students can't be wrong. So now you know what the celebration of Labor Day is really all about.

MANY OF THE GAZANS WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE OCTOBER 7 ATROCITIES WER BIDEN'S INNOCENT CIVILIANS

New IDF assessment shows some 6,000 Gazans invaded Israel on Oct. 7

Channel 12 says army data indicates 3,800 of the attackers were members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force

 

The Times of Israel

Aug 31, 2024

 

Gaza civilian takes selfie while other Gaza civilians inspect burning Israeli tank on the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border, October 7, 2023. 

 

New assessments indicate twice as many Gazans breached the border into Israel on October 7 than previously believed, Channel 12 reported Saturday, citing data compiled by the Israel Defense Forces’ Gaza Division.

Some 3,800 terrorists from the Hamas terror group’s elite Nukhba forces smashed through the border fence, the report said, among a total of 6,000 Gazans who crossed into Israel that day.

Hitherto, figures made public indicated that some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists participated in the invasion, massacre and hostage-taking that day. That number did not take into account Gazans who crossed the fence and participated in the atrocities but were not Hamas members, nor did it differentiate between Nukhba terrorists and other Hamas terrorists.

 

 

Palestinian civilians from the Gaza Strip enter Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023,

 

It was unclear from the report what the status was of the 2,200 other Gazans who infiltrated Israel on October 7. Presumably, many were civilians, as extensive footage of the onslaught showed many enter to loot and take part in the assault, while others were likely members of other Hamas units or other terrorist organizations such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The TV report also said that the border was breached in 119 spots — again, about double the previously widely cited figure of 60 breaches in the Gaza-Israel fence.

Additionally, 1,000 terrorists inside Gaza were involved in firing rockets at Israel that day, the report said, meaning that a total of some 7,000 Gazans took part in the onslaught.

 

Screenshot from a video broadcast on the Israeli TV channel Kan 11 showing Hamas terrorists bursting into Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 

 

Some 5,000 rockets were fired at Israel on October 7, with 3,000 of them in the first four hours of the onslaught, according to the IDF.

Channel 12 said the data was submitted to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.

In response to the report, Channel 12 quoted the IDF Spokesman’s Office as saying that the IDF’s operational probe of the events surrounding October 7 has not yet been completed, and is continuing in accordance with situational assessments and operational needs.

Upon completion, the findings will be made public, the spokesman’s office said.

The October 7 massacre saw terrorists kill some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnap 251, all while committing widespread atrocities and mass sexual assault. Over 350 people were killed at a music festival and whole families were executed in their homes.

THE PARENTS OF HERSH GOLDBERG-POLIN GAVE SPEECHES AT THE DNC IN CHICAGO

IDF recovers six hostages’ bodies from southern Gaza

Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, Carmel Gat and Ori Danino were murdered shortly before the IDF reached them. 

 

By Joshua Marks and Amelie Botbol

 

JNS

Sep 1, 2024

 

 

The murdered hostages, from top left, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi; from bottom left, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat

 

Israeli forces recovered the bodies of six hostages from an underground tunnel in Rafah in southern Gaza overnight Saturday.

The hostages were identified as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Almog Sarusi, 25, Alexander Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino, 25. 

“A few hours ago, we informed the families that the bodies of their loved ones had been located by Israel Defense Forces troops in a tunnel in Rafah. According to our initial assessment, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them,” said IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

All six were kidnapped alive during the Hamas-led assault on the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7.

On Oct. 7, Yerushalmi was working as a bartender at the Supernova music festival. She initially hid in a car, motionless alongside the bodies of friends who had been shot and killed. She then went into the bushes where she remained hidden for hours while on the phone with her family, and was taken by Hamas terrorists from there. 

Gat was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri while visiting her parents for the Simchat Torah holiday. Hamas terrorists murdered her mother, Kinneret. Her brother Alon, sister-in-law Yarden Roman-Gat and niece Geffen were also captured. Her brother and niece were able to escape while her sister-in-law was released as part of weeklong ceasefire that freed 105 hostages in November.

Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped by Hamas from the Supernova festival. He tried to escape by car but realized that terrorists were setting up roadblocks and shooting at approaching vehicles. He instead ran to a nearby bomb shelter. Soon, Hamas terrorists converged on the tiny space, murdering most inside and kidnapping those who survived. Before he was taken, Goldberg-Polin’s dominant right arm was blown off at the elbow by a grenade. His parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, recently called for his release at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. 

 

Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, speak on stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 21, 2024

 

Lobanov was kidnapped from the music festival where he worked as head barman. His wife, Michal, was pregnant when he was taken and has since gave birth to the couple’s second child.

Danino was also kidnapped from the site of the festival. He had escaped but went back to help rescue Omer Shem Tov and siblings Itay and Maya Regev. The Regev siblings were released during November’s ceasefire while Omer and Ori remained in captivity. 

Sarusi was kidnapped from the festival while his partner, Shahar Gindi, was murdered.

‘The blood of our brothers’

“Together with the entire nation, my wife and I share in the families’ deep mourning,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. “I would like to express deep appreciation for our forces, for the brave IDF soldiers and ISA [Shin Bet] fighters, who risked their lives in order to return our sons and daughters.

“I say to the Hamas terrorists who murdered our hostages and I say to their leaders: You will pay the price,” continued the premier. “We will not rest, nor will be silent. We will pursue you, we will find you and we will settle accounts with you.”

President Isaac Herzog said that “the heart of an entire nation is shattered to pieces with the news. … On behalf of the State of Israel, I embrace their families with all my heart, and apologize for failing to bring them home safely.

“The blood of our brothers cries out to us. Our sisters and brothers are still there enduring hell. The supreme covenant between the state and its citizens is to ensure their safety. We have the sacred and urgent mission to bring them home,” added Herzog.

President Joe Biden stated that he was “devastated and outraged” after the body of U.S. dual citizen Goldberg-Polin was identified.

“Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes,” Biden vowed, adding that the United States “will keep working around the clock” to secure a ceasefire deal to release the rest of the hostages.

Netanyahu spoke with Lobanov’s parents, expressing deep sorrow and apologizing for not being able to save their son and the five other abductees alive, the Prime Minister’s Office said.

“I would like to tell you how much I regret and request forgiveness for not succeeding in bringing Sasha back alive,” he told Oxana and Grigory.

During the conversation, it was revealed that the prime minister’s military secretary Brig. Gen. Roman Gofman returned from Moscow on Sunday, where he discussed advancing a hostage deal and talked about Lobanov and other captives.

The PMO added that Netanyahu will talk with other relatives of the hostages killed during the day.

65-foot-deep

The hostages were found in a 65-foot-deep tunnel with gunshot wounds to the head and other parts of their bodies.

According to the autopsies performed overnight, they were murdered in the past 48 hours. One of the hostages showed signs of being tied up and they all showed evidence of neglect and having not bathed for a long time. 

In addition, there was evidence that they sustained injuries during their kidnapping that were treated over time.

The hostages are believed to have been transported from the northern Gaza Strip to the south, where they were murdered.

Last month, the IDF and Shin Bet recovered the bodies of six other hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7, from a tunnel in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The bodies of Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, Yagev Buchshtav, Chaim Peri and Alex Dancyg were located more than 10 months after the Hamas massacre.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces rescued a hostage alive from Hamas captivity in Gaza. Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, a father of 11 from the Bedouin city of Rahat in the Negev, was rescued from a tunnel in southern Gaza, less than a mile from where the six bodies were recovered.

A day later, the IDF recovered the body of a soldier who was killed fighting Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 invasion.

At the request of the soldier’s family, his name has not yet been made public.

Increasing concern for remaining hostages

“I heard rumors yesterday, then a close uncle of Carmel got a message confirming it,” Ronen Kohler, the cousin of Carmel Gat, told JNS on Sunday.

The last time that the family had received news of Carmel’s condition was through former captives who were released as part of a November weeklong ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. They said that Carmel had been teaching them yoga in a bid to keep their spirits up.

“Today, I am standing at the Namir/Yehuda Hamaccabi Junction with Carmel’s picture. The redemption of the captives is a Jewish, Israeli, international and humanitarian value. It is forbidden to ignore it and abandon them,” said Kohler.

“While it will not bring back those who are gone, it might help save others,” he added.

“I hope thousands of people will come out today to scream that human lives come first. We are not violent and we are not aggressive. We call on people to mobilize for the values that we raise our children on,” Kohler continued.

Hadas Zubary, the aunt of Hamas captive Naama Levy, expressed sympathy for the families who lost their loved ones.

“I can assure you we didn’t sleep much last night,” Zubary said. “We know these people’s families. I feel like they are my nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters, and it was devastating to see their names.

“We were sure that they would be here soon. Carmel, Eden and Hersh were supposed to be released early on in the prospective deal and there is no more hope for them. It’s devastating,” she added.

Zubary said that her concern for Naama grows with every passing day.

“We understand that we don’t know where the next tunnel that the army will approach is, and who else Hamas will shoot as they run away. The fear is even harder for us to absorb,” she said.

Daniel Lifshitz, whose grandfather Oded is being held by Hamas in Gaza, told JNS on Sunday, “It’s a very hard and difficult mood, it makes us fear that all the captives are in huge danger.

“Personally, I was in high school with Carmel Gat and I am close to her brother. The pain is unbearable,” he said.

“It means we can lose everyone really fast, and that is something pushing us to urge our government to make an agreement with Hamas-ISIS,” he continued.

“We should all see it as the worst war crime after kidnapping a kid [Hersh] who lost his arm from a grenade and succeeded somehow to survive for 328 days only to be executed,” he added. 

Lifshitz called on Biden to act, “because bringing up a proposal at the end of May and having no developments since is unacceptable. They should have come to an agreement no matter the cost.

“I also call on Egyptian President [Abdel Fattah] el-Sisi to find a solution for the Philadelphi Corridor [on Gaza’s border with Sinai] so that there is no debate about choosing between saving lives and being present there,” Lifshitz said.

THE WEST BANK IS ISRAEL'S THIRD FRONT

Three Israeli police officers killed in terror shooting near Hebron

The officers were named as Ch. Insp. Arik Ben Eliyahu, Command Sgt. Maj. Hadas Branch and First Sgt. Roni Shakuri. 

 

JNS

Sep 1, 2024

 

 

 

L-R: First Sgt. Roni Shakuri, Command Sgt. Maj. Hadas Branch, and Ch. Insp. Arik Ben Eliyahu, killed in a shooting attack in the southern West Bank, September 1, 2024. 

 

Three Israeli police officers were killed in a drive-by shooting on Sunday morning near the Tarqumiya checkpoint, some 7.5 miles northwest of Hebron in Judea.

Magen David Adom paramedics treated a male and a female officer at the scene before pronouncing them dead. Another male officer was seriously wounded and evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva, where he was later pronounced dead.

They were later named as Ch. Insp. Arik Ben Eliyahu, 37, from Kiryat Gat, who is survived by his wife and three children; Command Sgt. Maj. Hadas Branch, 53, from Sde Moshe, who is survived by her husband, three children and a granddaughter; and First Sgt. Roni Shakuri, 61, from Sderot, who is survived by his wife, a daughter and a granddaughter.

Shakuri’s daughter, First Sgt. Mor Shakuri, was killed while battling Hamas terrorists attempting to take control of the Sderot police station on Oct. 7.

The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday initiated a search for the terrorists, who opened fire from a car at the police vehicle with the three officers inside on Route 35 and then fled on foot. The road was closed to traffic and security forces were preparing to search the nearby Palestinian village of Idna.

Later on Sunday, IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) fighters surrounded a house in Hebron where terrorists were believed to be holed up, the military said in a statement. At least one terrorist linked to Sunday morning’s attack was “neutralized” at the site, the IDF stated.

According to reports, the terrorist who carried out the shooting served as a member of Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas‘s “Presidential Guard,” though it was unclear whether he still held the position.

Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levy and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir arrived at the scene of the attack.

“I am certain and convinced that together with the IDF we will find and eliminate the despicable terrorists who harmed three of our good policemen,” Levy said at the scene.

Ben-Gvir said, “The right to life [of Israelis] prevails over the freedom of movement of the Palestinians.”

The minister later tweeted, in a lengthy post about the Judea attack and the bodies of six hostages recovered in Gaza overnight Saturday, that the attack “once again proved, unfortunately, the dire consequences of terrorists roaming freely in the area.

“Terrorism must be fought without imagination and without following [failed] security assumptions. In Gaza as in Judea and Samaria. The Palestinian Authority is a terrorist authority—an instigator of terrorism, pays salaries to murderers of Jews, its police officers engage in terrorism, and the Al-Aqsa Brigades [Fatah-affiliated terrorist group] belong to it,” Ben-Gvir continued.

“Those who trust them, endanger the State of Israel. Unfortunately, the security assumptions also control the roads; when Defense Minister Gallant orders to open roadblocks for the Palestinians, the result is the murder of Jews. It is forbidden to be bleeding hearts at the expense of the lives of our citizens—our right to live and not to be murdered, prevails over their right of movement. We need to close the traffic lanes we travel on to the residents of the P.A.”

The head of the Gush Etzion Council, Yaron Rosenthal, called on the IDF to “start the operation to clean up the nests of terrorism in the [P.A.’s] Hebron Governorate and the surrounding area.”

On Saturday, an IDF soldier was killed and three others wounded during clashes with Hamas terrorists in Jenin in northern Samaria.

The slain man was identified as Staff Sgt. Elkana Navon, 20, from Petach Tikvah.

Also on Saturday, the Hamas terrorist group hailed the previous day’s “double heroic operation” after car bombers wounded three Israelis in the Gush Etzion region of Judea.

HAMAS LEADER YAHYA SINWAR IS THE BENEFICIARY OF NETANYAHU'S ISRAELI OPPOSITION

Sinwar’s Israeli accomplices

The generals, the left’s political leaders and the rioters in the streets are all playing the roles the Hamas chief assigned them. 

 

By Caroline Glick

 

JNS

Sep 1, 2024

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant began serving as a mouthpiece for the left and the Biden-Harris administration immediately after returning from his weeklong visit to Washington in June.

 

On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists snatched Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Carmel Gat, 39, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Almog Sarusi, 26, Alex Lobanov, 32, and Ori Danino, 25 from the Supernova Music Festival and their homes along the border with Gaza along with 250 other innocents and held them as hostages.

As we know from hostages rescued alive since, Hamas tortures the Israeli captives as a matter of course. They are raped. They are beaten. They are starved. And they are humiliated and psychologically tortured day in and day out.

And many of them have also been executed.

Hamas executed Hersh, Carmel, Eden, Almog, Alex and Ori, apparently quite recently. And the IDF brought their bodies home on Saturday night.

Rather than respond to the heartbreaking news with condemnations of Hamas and demands that Israel fight to victory; rather than call for Israel to execute an equal or larger number of Hamas terrorists who participated in the Oct. 7 atrocities who are currently in Israeli jails, Israel’s opposition leaders in the Knesset have joined the anarchist groups in blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Hamas’s murder of the six.

 

 

The murdered hostages, from top left, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi; from bottom left, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat

 

As one, Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid, Yair Golan and their underlings have joined the leftist groups that have been using mass riots, political violence and general mayhem since 2019 in an effort to oust Netanyahu from power, and have called on Israelis to take to the streets in response to the executions and bring down the government through violence.

The behavior of the likes of Lapid, Gantz, Golan; of 90% of Israel’s media organs and the rest of the left’s representatives, raises the question: Have they lost their minds?

Hamas took the hostages on Oct. 7 because its calculating leader Yahya Sinwar rightly identified hostages as Israel’s soft underbelly. In 1985, Israel freed 1,150 terrorists from Israeli jails in exchange for three Israeli hostages held in Syria by Ahmed Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. Among those freed was Ahmed Yassin, who founded Hamas two and a half years later.

Yassin and his fellow terrorists freed in the deal used their freedom to transform terrorism from a tactical nuisance into a strategic threat to the existence of Israel, leading waves of terror campaigns for the next two decades.

The Jibril deal taught Israel’s enemies that Israeli hostages are their ace in the hole. Oct. 7 was born in October 2011, when Israel freed 1,027 terrorists, including Sinwar, for IDF Sgt. Gilad Shalit, whom Hamas terrorists had held hostage since June 2006.

 

 

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar uses international pressure and domestic political unrest to compel Israel to capitulate to his demands.

 

Sinwar’s war strategy has been the same since the outset of the war: To use international pressure and domestic political unrest to compel Israel to capitulate to his demands. If he and Hamas are able to survive, Hamas wins. Obviously, the hostages are a key means of accomplishing his goal. To understand how he uses them, consider the hostage videos.

Freed hostages attest that while in Hamas captivity, they were videoed constantly. They were forced to say whatever texts Hamas propagandists told them to say, over and over again.

Given Hamas’s apparently endless supply of hostage videos, why has Sinwar released so few?

The answer of course, is that Sinwar views them as a tool. The texts of nearly every single video have been nearly identical. The hostages blame Netanyahu for their suffering and demand that the government bow to Hamas’s demands or else Hamas will kill them.

All the agency is on Israel. Hamas merely responds to the actions of the government. Whether the hostages live or die is Israel’s decision, not Hamas’s. In other words, the sole purpose of the videos is to destabilize the government by inducing the public to believe that it is the government—not Hamas—that is effectively holding the hostages captive.

This brings us to the recent execution of the six. Apparently, their captors saw that IDF units were closing in on their position. They could have seized the hostages and run somewhere else. But they executed them. Why?

Consider recent events.

For the past several months, responding to the joint demand of the left and the Biden-Harris administration, Netanyahu has been sending Israeli hostage negotiators to Qatar and Egypt to try to reach a deal with Hamas for the freeing of around 20 of the 101 hostages—dead and alive—Hamas holds in Gaza.

Israel has accepted in principle two exceedingly problematic deals presented by President Joe Biden, the first in May and the second last month. The offers require Israel to release hundreds of Hamas terrorists, including murderers, in exchange for around 20 hostages. They also require Israel to accept a ceasefire for at least six weeks and the removal of most of its forces from Gaza. The deals involve several stages.

Israel’s position is that after the first stage, it will be free to renew military operations. Although the Biden-Harris administration has paid lip service to this demand, it is apparent that it views the deal as a means to achieve a permanent ceasefire. And as the days till the presidential election on Nov. 5 tick by, the administration will use all the leverage the U.S. has on Israel to compel Israel not to renew hostilities. In other words, regardless of what the deal’s text says, agreeing to Stage 1 means agreeing to an end to the war with Hamas intact, that is, with Hamas victory.

While Israel’s position has changed over the course of the talks, Hamas’s has stayed constant. It demands a total cessation of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, and the total withdrawal of all IDF units from all of Gaza, including the border with Egypt. Reportedly, there are thousands of fully armed Hamas terrorists in Sinai waiting for the ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from the border to enter Gaza and to in short order rebuild Hamas’s regime and its devastated forces.

Since May, and with greater determination and urgency in recent weeks, Netanyahu has stated repeatedly that although he is willing to make massive, painful concessions to free even a small number of hostages, he is not willing to remove IDF units from the Gaza-Egypt border. In light of the U.S. position, his stance makes sense. The only way for Israel not to lose is to keep Hamas cut off from its outside supporters. A JNS/Direct Polls survey from July showed that some 60% of Israelis support that position.

On the other hand, in acts of gross insubordination and strategic lunacy, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar, Mossad Director David Barnea and other top officials have let it be known through their media mouthpieces that they oppose Netanyahu’s position. Halevy, Bar and others refuse to acknowledge the administration’s actual policy and insist that Israel can afford to leave the Gaza-Egypt border for six weeks. And returning will be an easy matter.

The generals’ position is supported by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Gallant fully abandoned his voters in Likud and began serving as a mouthpiece for the left and the Biden-Harris administration in the Security Cabinet immediately after returning from his weeklong visit to Washington in June.

The discourse in Israel isn’t simply removed from reality because it is based on a false presentation of the U.S. position by the security brass. The entire domestic debate is taking place while Hamas isn’t even participating in the negotiations. For the generals, for Gallant and their comrades in the Knesset, the media and on the streets, the only one responsible for anything is Netanyahu.

In other words, Gallant, the generals, the left’s political leaders and the rioters in the streets are all playing the roles Sinwar assigned them.

This reality played out starkly during Thursday night’s Security Cabinet meeting.

From leaks of the supposedly secret deliberations that can be traced directly to Gallant, we learned that Gallant presented his fellow ministers with an ultimatum that might as well have been written by Sinwar. Gallant said that if they don’t agree to withdraw from the Gaza-Egypt border (temporarily), the hostages will be killed.

Netanyahu reportedly exploded at Gallant and explained that there is no such thing as a temporary withdrawal from the border zone, because of the actual U.S. position opposing a reinstatement of hostilities. Gallant responded to this dose of reality with a total meltdown. He said that Netanyahu was effectively calling for the hostages to be murdered.

Netanyahu responded by presenting a draft Security Cabinet decision to reject any concessions on Israel’s control over the Gaza-Egypt border in any hostage talks. It passed with one nay vote—Gallant’s.

Then on Saturday night, the news began percolating that the hostages were executed and the IDF retrieved the bodies.

As Tal Gilboa, whose nephew Guy Gilboa-Dalal remains hostage in Gaza, wrote on her X account on Sunday morning, “If the formula is ‘dead hostages = shutting down the country,’ … what would you do if you were Sinwar?”

Gallant responded to the news of their executions by publishing a statement on X demanding that the Security Cabinet reconvene and cancel its decision on the Gaza-Egypt border from Thursday night.

Towards noon on Sunday, Netanyahu issued his first response to the news that that the hostages had been executed. He explained that Hamas stopped carrying out serious negotiations with Israel last December. Sinwar rejected the U.S. ceasefire for hostages deals in May and August—both of which Israel accepted. Netanyahu concluded by noting that the execution of the six hostages makes clear, yet again, that Hamas doesn’t want a deal.

Given past experience, in all likelihood the left’s current calls for mass riots will indeed lead to unrest. But they won’t bring down the government. All the same, as Gilboa inferred, they will place the rest of the hostages in even greater peril.

Israel needs to win this terrible war. It has no choice. Just as the Jibril deal paved the way for 20 years of escalating terror warfare against Israel, and just as Oct. 7 was born with the Shalit deal, so events far more terrible than that one-day holocaust will happen if we dare to play by Sinwar’s rules. It is shocking, and frankly unforgiveable, that Israel’s left, led to his disgrace by Gallant, insists on doing so.

ELECTION SPECULATION UPDATE

By Bob Walsh

It is now 65 days until the general election.  Early voting will start in some areas in a couple of weeks.  

Kamala didn't get much of bump off of her much vaunted interview last week.  Of course she only said one thing even remotely interesting.  The rest was ducking and hiding and refusing to give answers.  The CNN info-babe clearly couldn't have possibly cared less.  She wanted face time with Kamala.  She could have just given Walz a lap-dance while they were there.  The useful information given would have been basically the same.  

The real question (IMHO) is when Trump is going to get focused on the job at hand and cut out the junior high school bullshit.  It is really simple.  Pick three (or four, or five, a manageable number) of issues and HAMMER those issues over and over and over.  It is possible that real program positions will overcome warm-and-fuzzy or whateverthefuck Kamala is Tampon Tim are pushing this week.

I still don't think that Kamala can win this thing, but I am certain that Trump can lose it.  FOCUS DUDE.  It is kind of important.

A (TEMPORARY) END TO THE MADNESS

By Bob Walsh

 

Reparation supporters erupted in anger at the California state Capitol Saturday after two stalled reparations proposals for black residents were seemingly killed

The session for the legislature of the formerly great state of California came to an end Saturday.  In the old days the speaker would often lock the doors, unplug the clocks and keep people in and pretend they still had time.  They can't do that any more.  Too many people looking.

Greasy Gavin wants a special session to deal with evils committed by the evil gasoline refiners.  The assembly has said "sure thing."  The state senate has said "piss off."   They are refusing the call for a special session.

Among other things that might die a natural death tonight are a bill that would create a semi-permanent State Reparations Study Group (or something like that) to try to figure out how to give away more state money to people who were never actually harmed by legal slavery in California, because it never existed.  Part of the problem is that the state is at least $35 billion in the hole right now.  Part of the problem is that there are actually some people in the CA legislature who think it is a dumb-ass idea.  

Anyway tomorrow ISVESTIA (also known as the Sacramento BEE) will almost certainly have available info on what made it to the governor's desk and what didn't.  I will let you know what shakes out.  I hope you are enjoying your Labor Day weekend.  I went over to my brother and sister-in-laws place and we told lies to each other for a few hours and I met the new dog.  It was a good day.